Sean B. Carroll is a professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin and a pretty smart guy who spends his days tracing the course of evolution via DNA and spends his nights writing about it. Maybe being a storyteller makes him a better scientist. In The Making of the Fittest, he put the full faith and credit of DNA-based research at the service of evolution and made it sing.
His new book, published just in time for Darwin’s 200th birthday today (happy birthday Charles), isn’t like that. Remarkable Creatures is a simple history of evolutionary thinking as told through brief biographies of noted scientists, starting with Alexander von Humboldt, who believed in an entirely static world, through Svante Paabo, who figured out how to extract DNA from Neanderthal fossils, thus proving they were not our ancestors. Along with way he profiles Roy Chapman Andrews, the pistol-toting Beloit native who provided the original model for Indiana Jones.
For anyone who has not really delved into evolution and its history, these stories of the ongoing search for the missing links might be fascinating. I hope it will inspire a whole new generation of paleo-geneticists. Even if you know all about Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Walcott, you will find stories here that you probably have never heard told in a breezy, entertaining prose that moves the stories along like a good mystery novel.
But unlike Carroll’s other work, Remarkable Creatures breaks no new ground. Unlike some of the recent Darwin biographies, it offers no new perspective on why he did what he did. You will find no academic skullduggery, professional backstabbing or scientific mis-deeds here. Unfortunately, it would have required many more volumes.
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